cairo

The egyptian sun
feels warmer today
Softer

The streets quiet
lined with praying men
we bumble along to
the main square
and the prayer walks with us

I see the rail, cold
green, and my heart
is fragile again

I feel its heaviness
against my forearms
the sweat slippery
the elbow in my back

Today the sun warms it
its hard to fathom my
relationship with it yesterday
dirty fingernails, scared eyes
orders
but we were all penned up
they were young, I hold up my hands,
showed them my palms, it was safe
salaam, met their eyes
but they were in a cage too

So they grabbed old women
threw them
kicked heads, blood

So the rail today flashes
this thing, deep in my body
a memory. I realize that
I start to witness this day
differently, with a fractured heart

Impossibly this place
reminds me of my childhood
I know the songs, the rhythms, the cadence
of the soft face of the boy
bouncing on the donkey

What is the connection?
This fractured heart?
This fragrant wisp of childhood?
And its real, I know this place.